The city of Centralia 2009-2010 audit was rated clean by the city’s auditor.
"Governmental and business activities are much improved from last year," said Heidi Chick, representative of Williams Keepers LLC, the firm retained to audit the city’s finances.
Chick complimented city clerk Kathy Colvin and city administrator Lynn Behrns on their record keeping and cooperation, as well as the staff of the Centralia Recreation Center.
"It’s nice to know that public officials can do their job and stay within their budget," said Jon Angell, Ward II.t
The audit’s management discussion and analysis included these fiscal highlights:
• City assets exceeded city liabilities at the close of the fiscal year by $15,758,547. Of that, $4,026,765 may be used to meet the city’s ongoing obligations to citizens and creditors.
• The city’s total net assets increased by $259,172, mainly because of a reduction in street construction expenditures and increases in utility rates to match current operating requirements. Dedication of infrastructure improvements from developers of new subdivision was also a minor contribution.
• The fiscal year closed with the city’s combined fund balances at $1,945,738, a decrease of $904,226 from last year. The decrease comes mainly from planned investment in capital assets.
• At the end of the fiscal year the unreserved fund balance for the general fund was $570,059, 37.2 percent of the total general fund expenditures
• The city’s total bonded debt decreased by 9.1 percent, or $20,000 during the current fiscal year. This, said the audit letter, was through a payment of the library bond issue. The city does have three years left of a lease purchase contract with a principal of $419,454 for funding street improvements. It also has 18 years on a lease purchase contract with a principal of $1,900,000 for the construction of the recreation center. This fiscal year the city also entered into a 15-year lease purchase to fund construction of the new electrical substation. It has an outstanding principal of $1,589,000 and should be complete by August 2011.
In the management letter to the aldermen, the firm did list two areas of concern.
• No one on the city staff "is capable of doing the financial statement from start to finish"
• Currently all employees of the city finance office have access to the office accounting, payroll and utility billing software. "They have the ability to post any type of entry or adjustment and add or delete employees, vendors, or customers. This creates a lack of control over the software where an employee could potentially corrupt alter or delete financial information within the city’s records."
Chick said neither of these were unusual in cities the size of Centralia.
Other recommendations from the auditors included:
• The recreation center "should consider ways to make deposit preparation more client,
efficient, such as the use of a spreadsheet to track each day’s collections by revenue line item."
• City bank accounts require two separate passwords in order to make a transfer
The aldermen voted to accept delivery of the audit. This came after Paul Million, Ward III, asked for the stipulation "delivery." He asked how the aldermen accept the audit report without actually having read it. The aldermen agreed.
Chick offered to return at a later date to address any questions. The aldermen said they would send questions to Behrns or Colvin and they would deal with them.
In response to a question from Centralia mayor Tim Grenke, who attended the meeting via telephone, Behrns said the audit would be uploaded to the city website sometime this week.
In other business they voted to:
• Reduce the speed limit on Jefferson Street between Poage and Highway 22 from 35 mph to 25 mph
• Purchase a one-ton gasoline-driven truck from Forrest Chevrolet for $28,590. The competing bid was from Joe Machen’s of Columbia for $27,827. Reasons given for taking the higher bid included supporting a local business and the accessibility of maintenance service.
• Accept a $25 a month increase from Hueber and Associates for the maintenance of the Centralia Police Department’s Interpol database. This is the fourth year the city has retained their services. Behrns said that was within cost of living increases. That brings the monthly charge to $350.
• Pay $372,396 in accounts payable. One line-item which drew some discussion was the $15,000 payment to a contractor representing Kansas City Southern railroad in order to run electric and fiber optic line over their crossing on Barr Street. Aldermen such as Jessica Orsini thought the fee excessive. "It is legalized theft," she said, "but still theft."
The additional power lines, said Behrns are part of the new city electrical substation project.